The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-05-19
INSTINCT AND HABIT.
Effects Of Impulse on Men and AMI
mails.
HOW THE INSTINCTS OF CHILDHOOD Be
COME THE IRON BOUND HABITS OF
OLD AeE-TRANsIENT INSTINCTS
OF INFANCY.

Henry James, in an art Gle in Sc19baaer'
Magazine on /" Instinct, (" shows that he has
given close study to this faculty in it's va
rious formsas it appears in man and beast
After defining the word for the purposes
of his discussion and showing that the
facullgis present in all living beings, he
arrives at a conclusion different from the
older writer's on the subject, who smother
ed everything in a vague wonder at the
clairyDyant ard prophetic power OF the
animals. so superior to anything III man.
and 1.-THE benefcence Of God in endowing
them with such Gift. lie concludes that
everyinstinet is ali impulse, and that man
has a greater variety of impulses than any
lower sninsa, and any one of these impulses
is as blind . lis the lowest instinct can be:
but owing to mans memory, power OF re-
Election. and power of inference they come
each one to be felt by him i'll connection
with a foresight Of their results. It is OBJ
viousthat every instinct in an animal with
memory must be accompanied with fore
sight as to its end just so far as that end
may have fallen under the animals cogni-
zance. Thus it is plain that no matter how
well endowed an animal may originally be
in tie matter CT instincts his actions will
bemuch modified if, in addition to impul-
SEES, he have memories, associations, and
differences on any considerable scale.
g Young animals, "says the writer, . i'm
mediately after birth, have no instinct of
fear. but show their dependence by allow
ing themselves to be freely handled. Later.
however. they grow wild, and, if left to
themselves, will not let man approach
them. am told by farmers in the Adj
rondaek wilderness that it is very serious
matter if COW wanders off and calves in
the woods and is not found for week or
more. The calf, by that time, is as wild
and almost as fleet as deer, and hard to
capture without violence. But calves
rarely show any particular wildness to the
men who have been in contact with them
during the first days of their life, when the
instinct to attach themselves is uppermost.
nor do they dread strangers as they would
il brought up Wild
This leads to the law of transformers,
which is this: That many instincts ripen
at certain age, and then fade away. A
consequence Of this law is that if, during
the time OF such an Instincts vivacity, OBJ
ieets adequate to arouse it are met with, a
habit of acting on them is formed, which
remains when the original instinct has
passed away; but that if no such objects
are met with, then no habit will be form
ed; and, later Oh in life, when the animal
meets the objects he will altogether fail to
react, as at the earlier epoch he would in
stinctively have done. No doubt such
law is restricted. Some instincts are far
less transient than others-those connected
wish feeding and self preservation may
hssstily be transient at all, and some, after
9edi.aes slA.t For, ti,,ans -ronur as strong as
ever, G a., the instincts OF pairing and rear
ing young The author cites as an exam
pie of the habit Of acting on instinct a
Scotch terrier, born on the floor of a stable
anu lTduS1tI1Gu OLA HEChO lcuS1 w p SVA
peted house. When he was four months old
he would make very elaborate pretence
Of burying things, such as gloves, &C.,
which he had played with until he was
tired. He scratched the carpet with his
fore feet, dropped the object from his
mouth upon the spot, and then scratched
all about it with both fore and hind feet,
if l remember rightly.) and finally went
awav and let it lie. OF course the act was
entirely useless. | saw him perform it at
that age some four Or five times, and never
AGAIN in his life. The conditions were not
present to lix a habit which could last when
j the prompting instinct died away. But
suppose meat instead of glove, earth in.
stead of carpet, hunger pangs instead q
fresh supper few hours later, and it is
easy to see how this dog might have got a
habit of burying sLperauous food, which
might have lasted all his life.
This particularly is still more notice.
| able in human beings. If boy grows uI
alone at the age Of games and sports, arc
learns neither to play ball, nor row, nol
sail, nor ride, nor skate, nor fish, nor shoot
probably he will be sedentary to the end Of
his days, and though the best of opportu-
mites be afforded him for learning these
things later. it is hundred to one but hi
| will pass them by and shrink back from
the effort of taking those necessary steps
the prospect of which, at an earlier age
would have filled him with eager delight
/ The sexual passion expires after protract
ed reign: but it is we'll known that its pc
.culiar manifestations in a given individual
| depend almost entirely Oh the habits HI
may form during the early period of it
activity. Exposure to bad company thel
makes him a loose liver all his days; chas
tity kept at first makes the same easy late
on. In all pedagogy the great thing is t.
strike the iron while hot, and to seize tn
wave of the pupils interest in each sue
cessive subject before its ebb has come, S
that knowledge may be got and habit
! skill acauired-a Roadway Of interest. il
/ short. secured, on which afterWard the IN
diyidual may boat There is a happy me
ment for fixing skill in drawing, for max
ing boys collectors in natural history, an
presently dissectors and botanists; the
for initiating them into the harmonles
northumberland the wonders Of physical an
chemical law, and so on. In eac
of us saturation point is soon reached
all these things; the impetus OF our purel
intellectual zeal expires, and unless th
topic be one associated with some urgen
personal need that keeps our wits con
stantly whetted about it, we settle into a
equilibrium, and live on what we learne
when our interest was fresh al instinctiy
without adding to the store.
1t is for this reason that, outside OF the
own business, the ideas gained by men b.
fore they are twenty-fi five are PRACTICAL
the only ideas they have in their live
They cannot get anything new. Disinte
ested curiosity is past, the mental groove
and channels set, the power OF assimili
ton gone. If, by chance, we ever do lear
anything about some entirely new tepi
we are afflicted by strange sense of IL
security, and we fear to advance a resolut
opinion. But with things learned in tt
plastic days of instructive curiosity "
| Hoo oE h., 81 hoy,